Talk:Empower Vs Maximize
Resistance is futile! (or is it?) You should also address resistance, which can alter the balance so that Empower outperforms Maximize. As a quick example, against targets with no resistance, a Maximized 2d6 spell averages 12 damage, while the Empowered counterpart - a 3d6 version - averages only 10.5 damage. The Maximized spell looks better than the Empowered spell. However, against a target with a resistance of 15 to the appropriate damage type, the Maximized spell always inflicts 0 damage, while the Empowered spell is sometimes able to beat the damage resistance. In this case, the Empowered spell looks better. I haven't done so, but it should be fairly easy to write a program loop to compute and compare the performance for different M, N, and resistance levels. :This remark is rather silly. Nobody is going to slot empowered version of 2d6 damage spell over a maximized just in case they get a creature with 15 resistance to that damage. If they are expecting such a creature then they are better off with some other spell, and if they get in that situation unexpectedly they are better off doing something else than shooting empowered version of the spell for a few points of damage. That being said, with empowered IGMS you can expect average of 1.6 damage per missile vs a creature with resistance of 10/- vs magical. This effect doesn't matter when resistance is low compared to the damage. An empowered fireball isn't improved compared to maximized when the resistance is 10/-.--Spura 15:15, 7 June 2009 (UTC) How often does an empowered spell exceed a maximized one Need to determine the chances of a given empowered spell exceeding the maximized damage Pain 03:06, 8 April 2008 (UTC) It looks like an r-Combinations with Limited Repetition problem. If that is, indeed, the case, then the general solution is probably not going to be pretty. Chronos Sk 01:41, 27 August 2008 (UTC) Disintegrate(Empower) regularly does more damage than it's maximized counterpart, especially on critical hits(highest I have seen regularly is 438, never seems to roll higher than that). Mictlantecuhtli 12:58, 3 July 2009 (UTC) So does Polar Ray(Empower), in the mid-400 damage range on crits. :Why does Disintegrate do more damage Empowered? Is this a bug? :Also, what about taking into account flat damage bonuses, which iirc are empowered but not maximised. For example, a Magic Missile does 1d4+1 (3.5 on average) which is 5 if maximised and 5.25 on average if empowered. So, it's something like if a spell does MdN+O damage, it breaks even for N - 4O/3M = 3 (with Empower being better on values < 3 and Maximise on values > 3)... correct my maths if it's wrong, I'm tired atm. Widow maker 01:40, March 13, 2010 (UTC) :You are wrong, but not your math. In NwN2, empower increases only variable values, not constants. Thus, for Magic Missile, you would have ( 1d4 * 1.5 ) + 1 : Not: ( 1d4 + 1 ) * 1.5 ::Ah, silly NWN2 Empower. Oh well, the page looks nice now btw. Widow maker 10:58, May 11, 2010 (UTC) :::Actually I just checked the script and in Magic Missile at least, the full damage is calculated before Empowering, so the constants are multiplies. I don't know if this works for any other spells with constant damamge bonuses, though. Widow maker 11:02, May 11, 2010 (UTC) ::::Also, the note on rounding assumes each die is rounded individually, but afaik, the dice are only multiplied by 1.5 after adding them all up. ::::For example, if a spell gave 4d3 damage (I don't know of any spell which could actually do this, but hypothetically), and you got the average 8, it would then be boosted to 12, giving a full 50% more. If you got the full 12, it would be boosted to 18, giving 4.5 per die, rather than the maximum of 4 which the page claims. Widow maker 13:26, June 18, 2010 (UTC)